FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Brooklyn Man Convicted of Fatally Shooting Three People in Fort Greene

Executed Two Alleged Rivals and Fatally Struck Innocent Bystander

Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a 33-year-old Brooklyn man was convicted of killing three people, including a 76-year-old innocent bystander, near a New York City Housing Authority Complex in Fort Greene in September 2015.

Acting District Attorney Gonzalez said, “This defendant callously executed two rivals and, as a result of his violent actions, also took the life of an elderly and completely innocent bystander. He has now been found responsible for this heinous triple homicide, an outcome that will ensure that he will no longer be out on the streets of Brooklyn.”

The Acting District Attorney identified the defendant as Allen Cooper, 33, of Fort Greene, Brooklyn. He was convicted today on three counts of second-degree murder and one count of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon following a jury trial before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Neil Firetog. The defendant will be sentenced on November 14, 2017, at which time he faces a maximum sentence of 75 years to life in prison.

The Acting District Attorney said that, according to trial testimony, on September 20, 2015, at approximately 1:45 a.m., the defendant approached Lacount Simmons, 39, and Calvin Clinkscales, 43, as they walked on Fleet Walk near the Ingersoll Houses in Fort Greene and fatally shot them. Simmons was shot in the head, back and torso, and Clinkscales was shot in the head and torso. The third victim, Herbert Brown, 76, was struck in the abdomen by a stray bullet.

According to the evidence, the defendant was arrested on April 22, 2016, in an apartment in Fayetteville, North Carolina, after an anonymous caller told the New York City Police Department where he was staying. The suspect was also captured on video surveillance near the Ingersoll Houses running from the scene of the shooting.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Howard Jackson, Deputy Chief of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau, and Senior Assistant District Attorney Sasha Pemberton, of the District Attorney’s Green Zone Trial Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Timothy Gough, Homicide Bureau Chief.